1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to displaying health and more particularly relates to displaying the health spatially and temporally.
2. Description of the Related Art
As data processing systems grow in size and complexity, it is becoming increasingly difficult to identify and isolate problems. For example, the failure of a first component in a data processing system may cause failures of other components. As a result it may be difficult to track the original cause of the failure back to the first component.
Data processing systems typically record log files for components. For example, a hard disk drive array may record a status and any errors for each hard disk drive in a log file. Unfortunately, the source of an error is often not readily apparent from a log file without a careful review of the log file entries. In addition, although a log file may record a failure in a major component, an administrator may be required to carefully review the log file to isolate a sub-component where the failure originated.
Because the data processing system may include a plurality of log files, the administrator may also need to review a number of the log files to identify a time when a failure first occurs and the component that first experienced the failure. The need to carefully review a large number of log files can significantly increase the time required to find the source of a failure, resulting in a significant cost in down time.